Series 3 > Foreign correspondence with Marie de Lorraine, Queen of Scotland, from the originals in the Balcarres papers > Volume 7

INTRODUCTION
xv
of Guise for the King’s favour. A letter in June of the
same year from M. de Mandosse 1 cut short the praises of
the Queen’s daily growth in beauty and all graces on the
ground that it would give her mother too great a desire
to see her by recounting the least of these virtues. The
first mention of the Queen of Scots by her uncles 2 is in a
letter from Franyois, Duke d’Aumale, in which he informed
Marie de Lorraine of the pleasure taken by the King and
the Dauphin in her company.
During the Queen Dowager’s stay in France there is
nothing in her few letters about her daughter ; although,
during that time, about thirteen months—September 1550
to October 1551—she was not constantly at Courts yet she
had sufficient opportunities of seeing the child to make
writing unnecessary. After her departure Mary’s name
again appears frequently in the correspondence. Mont¬
morency,3 writing of the King’s visit to his children, told
how the Queen of Scots had grown in every way. Anne
d’Est4 wrote, probably in 1552, that she was the prettiest
and most beautiful little Queen in the world, and no longer
a child in speech and manners. She proved this at the
end of her letter, when she told how she wished her little
daughter Catherine, born in 1550, to enter the Queen
Dowager’s service when she was old enough, adding that
Mary had expressed her desire to have Catherine as one
of her ladies till the Queen Dowager should return. De
1’Aubespine and M. d’Urfe 5 join in the chorus of praise;
the former, writing in 1552, wished for peace that the King
might have more leisure to see his children, adding in
guarded language : ‘ I can well remember what you were
pleased to tell me formerly of the game which we began
to play, by which I realise more and more the greatness
of your prudence.’ D’Urfe wrote that Mary became daily
1 Letter XXXVII. 2 Letter XLV. 3 Letter LXXV.
4 Letter LXXX. 6 Letters XC., XCII.